No pdf view in viewer pane

Stop giving advices! Registry Cleaner, TuneUp and all others are very helpful, because I can earn money for every installation destroyed by these great tools. :slight_smile:

I'm experiencing the same problem as the OP. I followed Leo's instructions to add "pdf" to the list extensions for IE 32 bit. The result was not good. PDFs in the viewer pane would give a "file download" popup and show an IE page "navigation to the webpage was cancelled".

Next I'll try to make sense of the other advice about installing PDF preview handler. I admit I find this topic confusing.

The Internet Explorer option for PDF doesn't make sense on most machines these days.

You just need to install a PDF preview handler. (e.g. Adobe Reader, PDF-XChange, FoxIt, or Sumatra with the appropriate option selected during installation.)

Make sure it's working in File Explorer's viewer if it isn't working in Opus. It should work in both, but if it works in neither then that tells you there either isn't a PDF preview handler installed or something has messed up its registry settings and the preview handler may need reinstalling.

Thank you, Leo. I installed PDF-XChange with default settings (all components) and PDFs in DOpus magically worked right away.

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I have DOpus 12.24 and Windows 10 64 bit. The pdf previewer works on my desktop computer, but not this Dell laptop. I have Acrobat Reader DC, Acrobat Reader Touch and Microsoft Edge. They all work in Explorer, but not DOpus.
In Preferences, Viewer, Plugins, Active X .... Configure, I have checked Adobe PDF for Vista (32-bit). Does DOpus need updating here?
I have tried Download More Plugins, but there is nothing useful there.
I feel that DOpus on this computer used to preview PDFs, but it doesn't now.
Please advise.
Thanks
John

Make sure the PDF extension is also assigned to it.

On a new system, I found Adobe Reader DC doesn't work (in Opus or Explorer) until the standalone version of it has been launched once and the licence pop-up agreed to. But, beyond that, it just works once installed.

If it's working in Explorer but not Opus, my suspicion is you have antivirus/privacy software which is blocking dopus.exe, docsvw32.exe or docsvw64.exe from opening PDF files or from loading the Adobe components. If you're using Defender, see here; otherwise, try excluding the same processes from the antivirus/privacy software that you use.

Thanks. Tried that in Norton firewall by allowing those files. Didn't help. Restarted the computer and that didn't work either.
Did you want a screenshot? If so, how do I do that in this forum? Is it the Upload button?

You can just drag a saved image, such as a screenshot, into your post.

Thanks. Here is a screenshot now, in case it helps.


The Upload button would have worked also, now that I look at it.

Try reinstalling Adobe Reader. Failing that, I would try another PDF viewer.

I've tried 3 different pdf readers in default apps, and none of them work with DOpus. They all work with Explorer.

It's almost certainly antivirus or anti-ransomware software blocking Opus from opening PDF files if none of the different viewers work.

I just temporarily turned my firewall off and it didn't fix it. Now I have 12.25 and there is the error message:
This PDF document could not be displayed.

This could mean one of the following:

  • No PDF preview handler is installed on your system.
  • The PDF preview handler is broken (e.g. by other PDF software).
  • The PDF preview handler could not open this particular file.
  • Anti-malware software is blocking access to the document.

Repairing or (re-)installing a PDF viewer is recommended if:

  • File Explorer's preview pane also cannot display the document.
  • The problem affects all PDF documents.

PDF viewers with preview handlers include:

  • Adobe Reader (Reader, not Acrobat)
  • FoxIt PDF Reader
  • PDF-XChange Editor
  • Sumatra PDF (click Options when installing)

Do you have antivirus as well as a firewall? Firewalls usually block network activity; antivirus is usually what would be blocking programs from opening documents.

Note that some antivirus software has multiple exclusion lists for different things. For example Windows Defender has separate exclusion lists for its virus scanning and privacy guard features, both of which can cause problems.

12.25 added an explicit error message to help people know which PDF viewers to install, but nothing else changed related to how PDF viewers work.

This is copied from the error message supplied by DOpus. I have Adobe Acrobat Reader DC 64 bit, which is the pdf reader that is used for Windows. This works fine on my desktop machine, but not on this one.
I also have Adobe Reader Touch, but that isn't as good as the above reader. Microsoft Edge works, but the Adobe Reader is better. None of these readers, when selected as default pdf reader, are working with DOpus as a previewer. I can turn off all sorts of settings with Norton 360 - temporarily - and that doesn't help. The Antivirus component does not block programs. That feature is in the firewall.
It used to work on this computer. I don't know what has changed.
Previews work fine with File Explorer, but I prefer DOpus for most functions.
The thing I like about previewing pdfs, when it works, is that you can rename them without having to close them first.

The only other thing I can think of is that something is preventing PDFs from being copied to your temp folder, or preventing them being opened when in your temp folder.

Opus will always copy PDFs to the temp folder before opening the copy, because too many PDF viewers lock the file while displaying them (even though it's against the Preview Handler API specifications to do so).

Type /temp into the path field in Opus to locate the temp folder, then see if you can copy a PDF to the folder and then display it, from that folder, within File Explorer's viewer. If that fails then it's likely what's going on.

I found the temp folder in DOpus as above and copied a pdf into it. I then copied that /temp path into File Explorer and thus located that temp folder. The pdf, as before, previewed in File Explorer, but not in DOpus.

Try a different PDF viewer in that case.

I have 3 PDF viewers on my laptop. They all work with PDF files on this computer. I.e. if I double click on anty PDF file on this computer, they open and display the file.
Within File Explorer, with each of the viewers as default for the computer, the preview function works.
With Directory Opus, with each of the viewers as default, the preview function does NOT work.
I don't think the problem is with my choice of PDF viewers.
Adobe PDF for Vista
My computer and DOpus are 64 bit. Is there a problem with the preview handlers being out of date in DOpus?

The preview handlers are not part of Opus, they're part of the PDF viewers.

You say the same ones work with your other computer but not on your laptop. Something on the laptop must be blocking Opus from opening PDF documents. That the only thing I can think of.

You could make a process monitor log of what happens which may reveal something: